


Keeping Strigas In A Cage

by Sarshi



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Adda can't read the room but she can fake reading the room, Adda's bedchamber is the new Hufflepuff common room, F/F, Geralt's reputation precedes him, Implied Politics, learning how to human after eating humans is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:01:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22229851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarshi/pseuds/Sarshi
Summary: "I've heard they take girls, even monsters, monsters, is that true, and they teach them magic, and at the end, they give them a new face, is that true, Yen? Were you a monster? Were you a monster, Yennefer?"Adda's heart beat so loudly in her ears that she felt as if she were drowning and it took her an eternity, or maybe just the blink of an eye, to realize that there was no reply. She turned. And there, her face contorted with rage, ugly with fury, stood a monstrous Yennefer.
Relationships: Adda Biała | Adda the White/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	Keeping Strigas In A Cage

**Author's Note:**

> It's been forever and a day since I wrote anything properly. I usually need solitude and quiet to write, and living with someone, while glorious, tends to put my writing on hold semi-permanently. I apologize for any and all works remaining unfinished while I post this. I'm trying to get back into the groove and do the thing where I learn to write anyway.
> 
> Yes, I'm hoping Yen/Adda is my gateway drug to writing more fic.
> 
> Aaaanyway. This story takes place in the universe where Geralt turned a striga back into a princess, Yennefer slept with Geralt (but he's not the love of her life), and it may or may not be compatible with various things in various media. If you notice any discrepancies, I will claim they're there because this is an AU. A subtle AU. The subtlest.

Since becoming human, Adda had learned that she could get whatever she wanted just for asking, as long as what she wanted was food, a bath, a party, or a man. Initially, this had seemed perfect, fulfilling desires she couldn't even have _imagined_ as a striga. But, as time went by and she became more and more human, Adda had discovered that it all came at a price, and that price was a cage. She no longer had to hunt and kill people for food, which was great, but she wasn't allowed to hunt and kill people from sheer spite, which was a compromise she liked less. She could bathe often, but she was required to wear things she didn't like, instead of going naked to court when the mood struck her. She could get men, but she got frowns and even anger in response, if the wrong people found out. She could party, and people liked drinking and eating with her, but she sometimes glimpsed a spark of disdain in their eyes.

Adda had mentioned the spark of disdain to Triss Merigold, who'd told her women were often disdained, even if they were princesses, and partying didn't help. That acting spoiled cast a shadow of doubt over her ability to rule. Adda wondered if this was another human lie, a way to avoid the truth that they all still saw the striga in her. They thought she was an _animal_. 

In a sense, they weren't wrong. But she knew they were _all_ animals, every one, though they tried to hide it. Small, scared animals. You had to play _games_ with them. You had to _pretend_ , and _lie_ , and Adda was never entirely sure when she lied too much, or pretended too vehemently.

"Would you ever fuck Geralt of Rivia?" Adda asked out loud.

From her bed, she heard Yennefer sigh.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question. I hear he's in town. Would you ever fuck Geralt of Rivia?"

An elegant leg inelegantly dropped over the side of the mattress as Yennefer deigned to rise. Her hair was a wild mess, her eyes bored, her breasts glorious, her lips curled in displeasure.

"I not only _would_ , but _did_ ," she answered. "And occasionally still do."

"Really?" Adda asked, running her brush through her hair again. She'd asked the question for a specific purpose, but now her interest was piqued. "Why?"

"There's a part of fucking he does very well," Yennefer replied. 

"What's that?"

"Fucking off."

Looking more closely at Yennefer, Adda realized the witch wasn't displeased: she was guarded, like she expected Adda to react badly. The princess didn't know what that was about, but it meant she could laugh out loud, so she did.

"I guess he does that," Adda replied. "I fucked him, too. That's why I thought of him now."

She got up, went to the door and opened it widely. Yennefer, almost always the picture of poise, suddenly grabbed her cloak from the back of the chair where she'd left it the previous night and draped it over herself, as naturally as you please, not rushed at all, elegant, but still with the speed of light. Adda didn't really get it. Yennefer was splendid. She should be admired by everyone, so why hide?

"Guard!" Adda called.

The guard was one of the older hands, but he still flinched when seeing her naked.

"Yes, your royal highness?"

"Geralt of Rivia has just left," Adda told him. "He's very stealthy, or so he believes. Please, do not encumber him on the way out. Pretend you haven't seen him."

"Geralt... of Rivia?" the guard said, slowly. "Was here?"

"Exactly," Adda replied. "Tell everyone to react the same. Thank you."

She shut the door and turned to Yennefer, who was looking at her as if she'd announced she wanted to throw a banquet for all the drowners in the land.

"What was that about Geralt?" Yennefer asked.

"He fucks off so well," Adda replied. "Just as you've said. And you'd fuck him. And I'd fuck him. It all fits."

The witch was still frowning, so Adda assumed that this _wasn't_ one of those things immediately obvious to everyone involved. How was she to know? It made perfect sense to her.

"I'm a princess," she replied. "I can have any man I want. But it has to be a man. They don't like women. They want me to sire an heir, if possible."

"You can't _sire an heir_ ," Yennefer said. "Siring means you're the heir's _father_. You'd be the mother."

"Well," Adda said. "I need to mire an heir, then."

Yennefer burst into laughter and Adda smiled in response. She wasn't sure what she'd said that was so funny, but she liked seeing Yennefer laugh. She liked the way her eyes sparkled suddenly, and her beautiful, sharp teeth showed, and the way Yen laughed with her, not at her.

"Witchers can't have children," Yennefer said, once her amusement subsided.

"Oh, I know, but they told me that someone with a cock is at least a step in the right direction."

Adda had always thought babies either _were_ , or they were _not_ , and there was no "right direction". Of course she knew that, in order to have a baby, you needed a man and a woman - that made sense. So her sleeping with Yennefer would obviously not produce offspring, just like eating a raw sheep wouldn't. But she didn't see how fucking a witcher was supposed to be a "right path" rather than a dead end. And then, of course, she'd been told she was supposed to sire (or _mire_ , or what was it) a child belonging to a specific man, who'd be her husband, and not just any man's. In fact, she'd gathered her having the wrong person's baby could be somehow worse than not having _any_ baby, so, in short, she didn't have the slightest clue what was she was supposed to be doing, but she'd learned to lie convincingly.

She hoped Yennefer would pick up the topic and say something to throw light on the situation, but the witch was laughing as if Adda was the soul of wit. That was fine. Being clever and funny was fine. She'd learned early on that being ignorant of things - especially _some_ things - was dangerous. People got an almost predatory look in their eyes, a calculating, fearful, but greedy look. They saw her as a predator, but sometimes, they also saw her as prey.

Adda didn't want Yen to look at her like that. Not Yen, who'd walked into her castle looking like she owned the place, not Yen, pretty as a dragon's jewels, glittering like moonlight on the water.

"What?" Yennefer asked. "You look sad."

"And you look pretty," Adda replied. "All witches are pretty. Is there a rule? That you have to be pretty to become a witch?" Then she remembered. "No, no! They make you pretty, isn't that right? Through magic?"

She turned and almost launched around the room, pacing because she couldn't stand still, suddenly unable to breathe as she got an _idea_ , a tornado looming at the back of her mind, not yet put into words. 

"I've heard they take girls, even monsters, monsters, is that true, and they teach them magic, and at the end, they give them a new face, is that true, Yen? Were you a _monster_? _Were you a monster,_ Yennefer?" 

Adda's heart beat so loudly in her ears that she felt as if she were drowning and it took her an eternity, or maybe just the blink of an eye, to realize that there was no reply. She turned. And there, her face contorted with rage, ugly with fury, stood a monstrous Yennefer.

"Yennefer...?" Adda said, or merely mouthed, as all her exuberance vanished and she became small, as tiny as a mouse. This was one of the _things_ then? The wrong questions? One of the worst.

"Who told you," Yennefer said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Who hates me so much that they'll mention it even now? Who hates me so much that they'd try to poison you against me?"

"You _were_ a monster, then?" Adda asked. She knew she should play the game, but she didn't know what the right step was here. She felt bared, exposed, but the only path through was forward. 

Yennefer looked away, and her expression turned into unreadable stone as she reached for a goblet of something they'd poured last night, and drank it all in a gulp.

"I was a hunchback," she said. "And quite ugly."

"Oh," was all Adda could manage. 

"Now you know. Go ahead, be disappointed. You fucked a hunchback pretending to be a pretty girl."

The princess was quiet for a few seconds, considering.

"What do you mean? Are you still a hunchback? It didn't feel like you are a hunchback."

"It's magic," Yen replied. "It's not real. I wasn't _born_ this way. I was _made_ this way. Magic is an illusion."

Adda didn't know what to say to that. The difference escaped her. Magic was definitely real - she'd eaten meat created through magic, she'd walked through a portal or two and _actually_ gone to the other side. She'd seen people healed. Moreover, she'd been a striga for the first part of her life, and killed people left and right. If she'd been a baby with an illusion of a striga strapped over it, she'd have died quickly, because babies couldn't do a thing on their own, never mind murder other people.

This sounded like yet another one of those pools of murky water she should stay away from. Things not to discuss: the nature of magic.

"So..." she said. "Girls who are monsters _can_ become witches?"

Yennefer's jaw tightened. "Yes."

"Can you teach me?" Adda asked. "How to become a witch?"

Yen turned towards her, surprised, as if they hadn't been having this conversation for the past few minutes.

"I don't know," she replied. "You'd need to have a bit of talent to start with."

"I'd love to be a witch."

"No, you wouldn't. You would be giving up... all this," Yen told her, gesturing around her. "No more princess. Witches serve."

"You don't," Adda pointed out. "You go wherever you want, and do whatever you like. You told me so yourself, last night. Was that a lie?"

Yennefer rubbed a spot between her eyes. "What I said was true, but it's not what you'd want. Trust me. Don't you like your servants? Your castle? Your life? Would you really want to leave it all behind - and for what? A couple of spells? The ability to do yourself what you can make others do for you? And you'd be giving up the possibility of having children _forever_. That does things to you you don't understand... To never be a mother..."

"The streets of Vizima are full of children nobody wants," Adda said, waving her hand dismissively. "I never knew my mother - what's she to me? My father, I've no connection to, other than that he looks at me as if he sees things that aren't there. I think of children, and I think of myself: how do I know Foltest is related to me? And I couldn't pick my mother from a crowd of one. One day, I might have a child, and that child might look on me as I look on my parents, and there's no magic in that. No, if I want a child, I'll pick one up and keep it."

"That's one way to look at things," Yennefer said, in a tone of voice that suggested it was the _wrong_ way to look at things.

""They brought me back from my crypt, they put a fork in my hand, and a comb in my hair, and they told me I was a princess. They fed me, they clothed me, they bowed before me. I thought I was a queen, you know. Then I realized, I still had my father's authority hanging over me, and I planned to take that authority from him. I wanted his throne. Then, I would tell everyone what to do, and nobody would tell _me_ what to do. But I didn't succeed."

"So you want magic to get the throne?"

"No," Adda said. "I want magic to get out of here. There's always _something_ , you know? You want to do a thing, but before you do it, you must do another thing. And for that other thing to happen, you need to fulfill one condition and do three things. And it goes on and on. I don't want the throne. The throne was the other thing, the thing that needed doing before I could get what I wanted. Do you know what I want?"

"No," Yennefer replied. "What do you want?"

Adda opened her mouth to respond, but stopped. She wanted to be alone - alone in all the world, like before being a princess. She wanted not to feel watched every minute of every day, not to have people around from the moment she stepped out of her rooms, talking, judging, sizing, leading her to drink so she could ignore them all. She wanted to feel cold again, because cold was home. She hadn't been happy as a striga, not by a long shot, but this new world was too much. She wanted a few rooms up in the mountains where wyverns lived. She wanted wyvern meat, and a bed as nice as the one in her bedroom, and a bath she could draw for herself, and nobody for miles around. She wanted to wake up in the evening, and climb onto the roof naked to look up at the stars. She wanted to go into town whenever she wanted, and not one moment more, and meet people only on her terms. She wanted a Geralt of Rivia, some who could fuck and then fuck off. Someone who, when asked, would say, "Yes, Adda, I want to go to bed with you," or "No, Adda, I don't want to go to bed with you," and none of that madness about what it all _meant_ , because it usually all meant _politics_.

Politics was a bad way to get what she wanted. She'd thought the throne would be her answer, but, after her plans had been thwarted, she'd noticed that her father was bound, too, by all the rules. He just didn't notice or care. 

"I want..." Adda said.

But she couldn't say all that. Yennefer was pretty, pretty like flames dancing on steel, like the first star on the night sky, like a lake under the moon. There was something that drew Adda towards her more than was usual, something that fascinated her. But the princess had learned to keep her own council and not say too much.

"I want pretty things," she said, and it wasn't a lie, not quite, because in the next moment her hands had moved of their own accord and she was touching Yennefer, pulling her close. "I want things as pretty as you, and the power to enjoy them."

"Are you sure you were a striga and not a dragon?" Yen laughed. 

"Shhh," Adda replied. "We mustn't make any noise. I've told them Geralt left, and later you both gained my favor, and they'll draw their own conclusions. But it's best if they don't know we're here alone, doing what we're doing."

Surprisingly, Yennefer's eyes lit up at that.

"Is that a challenge?"

"Yes," Adda whispered. She had no idea what challenge she'd just issued, but she assumed it would be fun.

"Good," Yennefer whispered back.

Before Adda could say anything else, Yen's lips were on her neck, kissing lightly all the way up to her jaw. A hand pulled her hair away, and the trail of kisses continued towards her ear, pausing for a second only for Yen to lick the sensitive skin beneath her lobe. Adda nearly gasped out loud before she remembered they were supposed to be quiet.

She allowed the witch to push her back towards the side of the bed. Yennefer flung the blankets away with a wave of her hand, like the convenient witch she was, and Adda sprawled on the bare sheet, pulling her legs apart invitingly.

"You're beautiful," Yen whispered, and Adda's heart leaped curiously, before she remembered people often said that during sex and didn't mean a thing by it. 

"So are you," she whispered back, showing her teeth in a smile to suggest her hunger.

Yen seemed to like that. She climbed between Adda's knees and ran her left hand down the princess's thigh, then up into the tuft of short hair between her legs, pulling at it until it nearly hurt. When Adda growled, Yen looked even more pleased, and leaned down to suck and bite on a nipple so hard it nearly hurt.

Oh. _Right_. The challenge was for Adda not to make noises. She finally understood it now. Yen was _trying_ to get her to cry out. 

Yen moved to the other nipple and licked it slowly, sending a tickle of pleasure through Adda, who squirmed. Then the teeth were back, pressing half-gently, half-painfully, Yen's eyes meeting Adda's in a playful, dark challenge. She seemed familiar with the game, so other people probably played it - none of the princess's lovers thus far, all of them too busy trying to please her in order to be this cocky.

Another pull of her lower hair, then a finger slid down into her folds, playing with them, looking for what brought Adda more pleasure, exploring her as if they hadn't already done so the previous night. Then Yen slid out of the bed, nearly earning a protest (which would be noisy, but it would also be cheating to win), pulled Adda to the very edge of the mattress, and sat on her knees next to the bed.

The tongue was better - wet and delicate, already knowing what it was doing, making Adda's toes curl up and her hips try to buck in anticipation. The tension low in her belly rose almost frustratingly, and then Yen slid a finger inside, and Adda's breath stuttered and her head banged back against the mattress. A second finger joined the first, moving more boldly now, and Adda was in heaven, riding Yen's fingers with abandon, tangling her hands in the sheets, gasping without a sound as she let herself be gloriously pleasured until she could take no more, and every muscle in her body locked in a silent scream of ecstasy.

When she opened her eyes, still panting, Yennefer had climbed in bed and was looking at her as satisfied as if she'd been the one in Adda's shoes.

"You _really were_ silent," Yen said.

Adda realized only now that she'd been supposed to lose the challenge out of politeness, if nothing else. Well. She'd know that in the future.

"I have great self-control," Adda replied. Because she did.

"Not last night. Unless you faked your pleasure for my sake."

"I faked a witcher for the guards' sake," Adda replied, and Yennefer snorted. "Would you like to meet again?" 

It didn't seem to be the right thing to say. And then, she remembered: Yen liked the way Geralt fucked, because he fucked off. 

"Maybe." It was the sort of maybe that actually meant no. "But I'm sure you have other people to play with, you don't need me."

There was something there that Adda didn't know how to interpret. A bitterness. But she couldn't tell what it stemmed from: was it really a feeling that Adda was treating her like a toy? A bit of fun? Did Yen want to be more? Adda thought of her as more. She wasn't sure what that _more_ was, but she liked Yennefer, and she wanted to see more of her. Was that enough? Being friends who fucked? Or was it too much? Did Yen fear complications? Did she fear Adda couldn't _fuck off_ when it was required of her.

"You're more fun," the princess said, grinning, hoping it would convey the _more_ , as well as not seeming overly needy.

"Hmm," Yen replied.

Maybe that had been the wrong response. It hurt, a bit, to think the witch might go away and never come back to Adda's bed.

"Can you teach me how to be a witch?" she asked again.

"No," Yennefer replied. For a second, Adda was utterly crushed to learn that she would never be able to do magic. Although she'd just had her revelation, she'd already felt freed by it, attached to the idea of escaping the world by becoming _more_ , moving out of her princess life. It would have solved _everything_ , but now it was impossible.

But then, Yen continued, "I won't teach you. You don't want this. You don't want magic. You don't want to be a witch. You don't want to lose your ability to have children."

"But I do!" Adda cried. "I do!"

"You don't understand what it means," Yennefer said, getting up. "You're too young to have the slightest clue."

"I'm not that young!"

"I'm a hundred years old and I say you're too young!" Yennefer snapped. "Don't insist."

"Don't you _dare_ tell me what I _want_ ," Adda growled. "I will _kill you_ if you tell me _what I want_."

"Ha!" Yennefer cried, putting her clothes on in anger. "What does a spoiled princess who gets everything she wants know of sacrifice?"

"Everything!"

The witch laughed, and her face became cruel, reflecting the anger and viciousness Adda felt. 

"I thought I wanted this, too," Yennefer spat. "I thought I wanted this life, that I wanted to be a witch, to look pretty, and have beautiful clothes, and be involved in politics."

"That's not what I want at all," Adda said.

"And do you know what?" Yen went on, as if she hadn't even heard her. "In a couple of generations I was bored, and nothing was as glamorous as I thought it would be, and there's no getting out of it. I hate it all."

"Teach me!" Adda cried. "Teach me and I won't regret it!"

"No," Yennefer said, finishing getting dressed. "You don't get what you want this time, princess."

"I never get what I want!"

The witch laughed, and Adda didn't go on. She didn't say she only got what other people wanted and what they thought was appropriate. That she could get a steak, or a pretty bird, or a lovely dress, but not quiet, not peace, not real power.

"I'll be off. I'll see you when we next meet," Yen said, opened a portal, and stepped through it.

Adda roared in anger, picked up the bottle of wine they'd had the night before, and threw it against the wall, where it shattered. Then she screamed and flung the goblet after it, then a plate, then two guards burst through the door, only to find her naked and shouting in her bedroom.

"WHAT?!" she cried.

"Your royal highness, we thought you were attacked," one said.

"Attacked?!" Adda cried, and then the mask fell back, the thing they'd carved for her, the human-lookalike, the princess, the lie. "No, I attacked, you fools! The witch has run away!"

"The witch?" a guard asked.

"Yennefer of Vengerberg," Adda hissed. "She tricked me. Oh, how she tricked us both, but I _applaud_ her. I don't know if that witcher will get his revenge, but I for sure will."

It was impolite for them to ask what that was about, which was perfect, because Adda didn't have an actual plan yet. It would be something about a thing that she'd requested of Yennefer... and she'd brought Geralt along for a threesome for... sex magic? Maybe?... And then she'd refused to fulfill her end of the bargain. Or, no, that would make her hunted, and Adda still thought she was pretty, and likable, and so, _so_ infuriating, but she shouldn't be brought to jail, so... she had given them what they wanted, but in the wrong way. Or they'd already had thing, whatever it was. It was a quality that had been in them all along. Though why the witcher had been involved, she couldn't explain yet.

She'd dug that hole, and she could crawl out of it later, she supposed. Or she could keep it as a mysterious secret.

"Get out," Adda hissed, and the guards scrambled to leave as she threw another plate at the wall, where it shattered. "And send someone to clean up this mess!"

When the door shut behind them, she realized she'd lost her temper like a fool. She shouldn't lose it. Yennefer was stronger than her. Older. She wasn't intimidated by a princess's tantrum, and maybe not by a striga's strength, either. What Adda needed was to _persuade_ her. To find another way. After all, Yen had implied that magic _could_ be taught, even to Adda, so there was a chance. All Adda had to do was find a way to take it. She had to stalk, and be strong, and be wily, and not take no for an answer. She was a princess, and a monster. One way or another, she would get what she wanted.


End file.
